U.S. patent number 6,056,197 [Application Number 09/025,035] was granted by the patent office on 2000-05-02 for information recording method for preventing alteration, information recording apparatus, and information recording medium.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Canon Kabushiki Kaisha. Invention is credited to Hiroshi Hara, Hideki Hosoya.
United States Patent |
6,056,197 |
Hara , et al. |
May 2, 2000 |
**Please see images for:
( Certificate of Correction ) ** |
Information recording method for preventing alteration, information
recording apparatus, and information recording medium
Abstract
Information is recorded on an information recording medium
including a partition. Predetermined information is recorded on at
least the partition of the recording medium, and it is confirmed
whether the predetermined information has been normally recorded.
When the predetermined information is not normally recorded,
rerecording is executed. After the predetermined information is
normally recorded, dummy data is recorded on a remaining region
other than on a region in which the predetermined information has
been recorded, so as to eliminate an unoccupied region in the
partition. Recording dummy data eliminates a vacant region of the
partition. The dummy data can be a specific character train, a
periodic repetition of data, a specific character, or continuation
of data.
Inventors: |
Hara; Hiroshi (Kawasaki,
JP), Hosoya; Hideki (Yokohama, JP) |
Assignee: |
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Tokyo,
JP)
|
Family
ID: |
26373569 |
Appl.
No.: |
09/025,035 |
Filed: |
February 18, 1998 |
Foreign Application Priority Data
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Feb 19, 1997 [JP] |
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9-034810 |
Feb 17, 1998 [JP] |
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10-034724 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
235/454;
235/380 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F
21/78 (20130101); G11B 20/00144 (20130101); G11B
20/1879 (20130101); G06F 2221/2123 (20130101); G07C
9/00174 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
G06F
12/00 (20060101); G06F 12/14 (20060101); G11B
20/12 (20060101); G11B 23/00 (20060101); G06K
7/10 (20060101); G06K 19/06 (20060101); G06K
19/10 (20060101); G06K 007/10 () |
Field of
Search: |
;369/275.3,234
;235/454,455,494,493,492,380,379,375 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Foreign Patent Documents
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62-077959 |
|
Apr 1987 |
|
JP |
|
63-091888 |
|
Apr 1988 |
|
JP |
|
63-244385 |
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Oct 1988 |
|
JP |
|
Primary Examiner: Le; Thien M.
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Fitzpatrick, Cella, Harper &
Scinto
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. An information recording method of recording information on an
information recording medium including at least a single partition,
comprising the steps of:
recording predetermined information to said at least a single
partition of said recording medium;
confirming whether said predetermined information has been normally
recorded;
rerecording when said predetermined information is not normally
recorded; and
after said predetermined information was normally recorded,
recording dummy data on remaining regions of said at least a single
partition so as to eliminate an occupied region in said at least a
single partition.
2. A method according to claim 1, wherein said recording medium is
an optical card.
3. A method according to claim 1, wherein said predetermined
information is user peculiar information to identify or authorize a
user of said recording medium, information to identify or authorize
an issuer of said recording medium, information to authorize a
system, information to authorize said recording medium, or an
initial usable money amount of a card in a prepaid card system.
4. A method according to claim 3, wherein said user peculiar
information is biometric information of the user.
5. A method according to claim 1, wherein said dummy data is the
same as at least a part of the predetermined information recorded
in said partition.
6. A method according to claim 1, wherein said dummy data is a
specific character train or a periodic repetition of data.
7. A method according to claim 1, wherein said dummy data is a
specific character or continuation of data.
8. A method according to claim 1, wherein said predetermined
information and dummy data are recorded when said recording medium
is manufactured, when said recording medium is issued, or when said
recording medium is personalized.
9. An information recording apparatus for recording information on
an information recording medium including at least a single
partition, comprising:
means for recording predetermined information on said at least a
single partition of said recording medium; and
means for confirming whether said predetermined information has
been normally recorded,
wherein when said predetermined information is not normally
recorded, a rerecording is performed and after said predetermined
information was normally recorded, dummy data to eliminate an
occupied region in said at least a single partition is recorded on
remaining regions in said at least a single partition by said
recording means.
10. An apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said recording
medium is an optical card.
11. An apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said predetermined
information is user peculiar information to identify or authorize a
user of said recording medium, information to identify or authorize
an issuer of said recording medium, information to authorize a
system, information to authorize said recording medium, or an
initial usable money amount of a card in a prepaid card system.
12. An apparatus according to claim 11, wherein said user peculiar
information is biometric information of the user.
13. An apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said dummy data is
the same as at least a part of the predetermined information
recorded in said partition.
14. An apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said dummy data is a
specific character train or a periodic repetition of data.
15. An apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said dummy data is a
specific character or continuation of data.
16. An apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said predetermined
information and dummy data are recorded when said recording medium
is manufactured, when said recording medium is issued, or when said
recording medium is personalized.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an information recording method for
recording information to an information recording medium, an
information recording apparatus, and an information recording
medium. More particularly, the invention relates to the prevention
of alteration of recording information on an information recording
medium.
2. Related Background Art
Hitherto, various types of an information recording medium for
magnetically or optically recording and reproducing information,
such as disk-shape, card-shape, tape-shape, and the like, have been
known. As such recording media, there are various kinds of media
such as read only medium, recordable but unerasable medium, and
recordable and erasable medium. Among those recording media, a
card-shaped recording medium, particularly, a recording medium for
optically recording and reproducing information by using a
semiconductor laser (hereinafter, such a medium is referred to as
an optical card) is small and light-weight, and is convenient for
carrying, and has a relatively large storage or recording capacity.
Therefore, a large demand is expected for recording medical
information and personal information on this type of medium.
FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an example of such an optical card.
FIG. 2 is a cross sectional view taken along the line 2--2 in FIG.
1. In the diagrams, reference numeral 5 denotes an optical card
having a card shape. An information recording region 21 is provided
on almost the whole surface of the optical card 5 and margin
regions 22 are provided in partial regions in the upper and lower
portions. A plurality of tracks 19 for tracking are preformatted in
parallel at regular intervals in the information recording region
21 in order to perform an auto tracking. An information track 20 to
record and reproduce information is provided between the tracks 19
for tracking. Track numbers 18 are used to discriminate each
information track 20 and are preformatted at both ends of each
information track 20.
As shown in FIG. 2, the optical card 5 is made up of a plurality of
layers. A recording layer 24 is joined onto a substrate 26 by an
adhesive agent layer 25. Further, a transparent protecting layer 23
is formed on the recording layer 24. The protecting layer 23 and
recording layer 24 are formed so as to come into contact with each
other by recess and projection shapes. With such a structure, the
recording layer 24 is divided into the information tracks and the
tracks for tracking. That is, a recess portion of the recording
layer 24 corresponds to the information track 20 and a projection
portion corresponds to the track 19 for tracking. As a recording
layer 24, for example, a material such as silver salt system, dye
system, chalcogen system, or the like is used.
To record information to such an optical card 5, a light beam of a
semiconductor laser is converged to a micro light spot, the light
spot is modulated in accordance with recording information to be
recorded, and the modulated light spot is scanned onto the
information track, so that the information is recorded onto the
optical card 5 as an information pit train which can be optically
detected. Since the information pit train is recorded by a physical
change such as deformation, color change, or the like by light or
heat, it is impossible to physically erase the information pit
train which has once been recorded and to again use the region of
the erased information pit train as a recording region. To
reproduce the information pit train recorded on the optical card 5,
a light beam of a predetermined intensity and of a certain degree
such that recording cannot be performed is scanned on the
information pit train. The reflected light (or transmitted light)
from the optical card 5 at that time is detected by a photosensor,
and a predetermined signal process such as binarization,
demodulation, or the like is executed by using the derived
detection signal, so that the recorded information is
reproduced.
A file management for a system for recording and reproducing
information by using an optical card will now be described. First,
in a case of recording a certain amount of information onto the
optical card, the information is recorded as a data file and
information to manage the data file (hereinbelow, such information
is referred to as a directory) is recorded in addition to the data
file. Ordinarily, by separately recording the data file and the
directory into the information recording region 21 in FIG. 1, file
management can be easily performed. In a case of recording
information, by recognizing recording start positions of the data
file and the directory with reference to the directory of the
relevant file, the data and the directory are recorded subsequent
to the data and directory which were finally recorded,
respectively.
At present, a method of using one optical card such as a medical
card, bank card, or the like for a plurality of purposes by making
the most of the characteristics such that the capacity is
relatively large is considered as a using method of the optical
card. That is, the optical card is used as a medical card to record
personal medical data and the same optical card is used as a bank
card in a bank or the like, thereby improving convenience. To use
the optical card for multi purposes as mentioned above, therefore,
as disclosed in, for example, JP-A-62-77959 (Laid-open No.
63-244385), there is known an information recording and reproducing
method whereby a recording region of one optical card is divided
into a plurality of blocks (partitions) and data and a directory
are recorded to the respective partitions and each partition is
used as one optical card.
In a case of using one optical card as a plurality of optical
cards, from a viewpoint of protection of personal privacy, key
information (hereinbelow, referred to as password information) to
permit the recording and
reproduction of information in every partition of the optical card
is recorded so as to make it impossible to record and reproduce the
information from an application (for example, application for a
bank card) using one certain partition into a partition which is
used by another application (for instance, application for a
hospital card). There is used a method whereby in a case of
recording and reproducing information to any one of the partitions,
the password information corresponding to the partition is
inputted, the inputted password information is collated with the
password information recorded in the relevant partition, and only
when both of the password information coincide, the recording and
reproduction are permitted to the target partition.
The password information is recorded into a specific region of the
partition. The apparatus or application manages the password
information, thereby assuring security of the information of each
partition. A method whereby information (for example, personal
information or the like) which is commonly used for a plurality of
applications is recorded in an area in a partition at one position
and a plurality of applications access the partition by using the
common password, thereby a method for efficiently using the memory
capacity of the optical card is also known. Although the above
description has been made with respect to the case where a
plurality of applications use one optical card, even in a case
where one application uses one optical card, there is also a case
where the recording region of an optical card is similarly divided
into a plurality of partitions.
Since the optical card as mentioned above is usually a WORM type
recording medium, it is impossible to physically erase and rewrite
the information once it has been recorded. Therefore, in such a
WORM type recording medium, in a case of erasing recorded
information, for example, as disclosed in JP-A-61-237033 (Laid-open
No. 63-91888), there is used a method of logically erasing the
information by recording information indicating that the
information was erased to the information which has already been
recorded. By using this method, after the information which had
already been recorded was logically erased, by after-recording new
information, an updating process of a file can be logically
executed.
However, according to the method of logically updating the file by
newly after-recording information to the recording medium, when
contrarily considering, the important information on the recording
medium can be simply altered by after-recording information.
Therefore, to prevent such an information alteration, it is
considered that a region to record specific important information
or a partition is set to the minimum size that is necessary to
record the specific important information.
However, if the size of partition is preset to the minimum size
that is necessary to record information, when a recording error
occurs, a problem would arise such that all of the information
cannot be recorded because of the preset, minimum-sized recording
region. As causes of the recording error, there are defects such as
scratches or dust on the recording medium, and also causes which
cannot be predicted such as a vibration which is applied from the
outside upon recording or the like. It is, therefore, difficult to
predict an amount of recording errors and to set the partition to
the size that is necessary for recording information in
consideration of the amount of recording errors. If the size of a
partition is set to a sufficiently large size, there is a fear such
that the information on the optical card is altered as mentioned
above.
As mentioned above, hitherto, there is still room for alteration of
the recorded important information by newly after-recording
information into an unrecording region of the optical card.
Particularly, such alteration is a fatal problem when the recorded
information is information to confirm the user himself or
information regarding a money process, for example.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the invention to provide an information
recording method, an information recording apparatus, and an
information recording medium in which alteration of information can
be certainly prevented in consideration of the above conventional
problems.
The above object of the invention may be accomplished by an
information recording method of recording information to an
information recording medium including at least a single partition,
comprising the steps of: recording predetermined information on at
least the one partition of the recording medium; confirming whether
the predetermined information has normally been recorded or not;
rerecording when the information is not normally recorded; and
recording dummy data onto a remaining region of the partition so as
to eliminate an unoccupied region in the partition after the
predetermined information was normally recorded.
There is also provided an information recording apparatus for
recording information on an information recording medium including
at least a single partition, comprising: means for recording
predetermined information on at least the one partition in the
recording medium; and means for confirming whether the
predetermined information has normally been recorded or not,
wherein when the predetermined information is not normally
recorded, a rerecording is performed and after the predetermined
information was normally recorded, dummy data to eliminate an
unoccupied region in the partition is recorded into a remaining
region in the partition by the recording means.
There is also provided an information recording medium including
two or more partitions, comprising: a security information recorded
on at least one of the partitions; and dummy data recorded on a
remaining region of the partitions excluding the security
information.
The above and other objects and features of the present invention
will become apparent from the following detailed description and
the appended claims with reference to the accompanying
drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a conventional optical card;
FIG. 2 is a cross sectional view taken along the line 2--2 of the
optical card of FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a constructional example of an
information recording apparatus according to the invention;
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the contents of recorded information on
an information recording medium according to the invention;
FIG. 5 is a flow chart for explaining an example of an information
recording method according to the invention; and
FIG. 6 is a flowchart for explaining a method of confirming the
user himself by using a recording medium on which information was
recorded by the recording method of FIG. 5.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
An embodiment of the present invention will now be described in
detail hereinbelow with reference to the drawings. FIG. 3 shows a
construction of an embodiment of an information recording and
reproducing apparatus according to the invention. In FIG. 3,
reference numeral 6 denotes an information recording and
reproducing apparatus (hereinafter, referred to as a drive) and 7
indicates a host computer serving as an upper control apparatus.
The drive 6 is connected to the host computer 7 through an
interface (not shown) and records information to an information
recording medium or reproduces the recorded information by a
command from the host computer 7. The optical card 5 as mentioned
above is used as an information recording medium.
An MPU (microprocessor circuit) 8 having therein an ROM and an RAM
is provided in the drive 6. The MPU 8 executes transmission and
reception of data to/from the host computer 7 and controls each
section such as head feed motor 11, card feed motor 12, AT/AF
control circuit 9, and the like in the drive 6, thereby controlling
the recording and reproducing operations of the information for the
optical card 5. As will be explained in detail hereinafter, after
fingerprint information is recorded to one partition of the optical
card 5, the MPU 8 executes a control for determining whether there
is an unrecording region in the partition or not and recording
dummy data to prevent alteration of data onto the unrecording
region of the partition.
The card feed motor 12 is a motor for driving a conveying mechanism
(not shown), guiding the optical card 5 to a predetermined position
in the apparatus, reciprocating and moving the optical card 5 in an
R direction at the predetermined position, and further ejecting the
optical card 5 to the outside of the apparatus on the basis of the
control of the MPU 8. A light beam irradiation optical system 13
includes an optical system such a semiconductor laser of a light
source, objective lens to converge a light beam from the light
source, and the like, converges the light beam from the light
source to a micro light spot upon recording or reproduction of
information, and irradiates the optical card 5 with a micro light
spot. A photodetector 14 is a sensor to detect the reflected light
from the optical card 5. An AF actuator 15 is a focusing actuator
to move a focal position of the light spot on the optical card
surface in a Z direction by driving a part of the light beam
irradiation optical system 13. An AT actuator 16 is a tracking
actuator to move the light spot on the optical card surface in a Y
direction by driving a part of the light beam irradiation optical
system 13.
An optical head 17 is constructed by including the light beam
irradiation optical system 13, photodetector 14, AF actuator 15,
and AT actuator 16. The head feed motor 11 is a motor for moving
the optical head 17 in the Y direction on the basis of the control
of the MPU 8 and accessing the light spot from the light beam
irradiation optical system 13 to a desired track. The AT/AF control
circuit 9 drives the AF actuator 15 and AT actuator 16 on the basis
of an output signal from the photodetector 14 and executes
auto-focusing control and auto-tracking control so that the light
spot from the light beam irradiation optical system 13 is focused
onto the card surface and the light spot scans an information track
while tracing it.
A modulation-demodulation circuit 10 is a circuit for modulating
recording information and demodulating reproduction information on
the basis of the control of the MPU 8. Upon recording of
information, the recording information transferred from the host
computer 7 is modulated by the modulation-demodulation circuit 10
and the light source of the light beam irradiation optical system
13 is driven in accordance with a modulation signal, thereby
recording information onto the optical card 5. Upon reproduction of
information, a light beam for reproduction is irradiated onto the
optical card 5 from the light beam irradiation optical system 13.
The reflected light from the card surface is detected by the
photodetector 14, and signal processes such as demodulation and the
like are executed in the modulation-demodulation circuit 10 by
using the output signal from the photodetector 14. The recorded
data is reproduced to original data.
FIG. 4 shows the optical card which is used as an information
recording medium in the information recording and reproducing
apparatus of FIG. 3. A fundamental construction of the optical card
of FIG. 4 is the same as that of the optical card of FIGS. 1 and 2.
That is, a plurality of tracks for tracking are formed in an
information recording region at regular intervals and an
information track to record information is provided between the
tracks for tracking. The track numbers 18 used to identify the
information tracks are preformatted at both ends of each
information track.
Further, in the embodiment, the information recording region of the
optical card 5 is divided into two partitions of a partition 1 and
a partition 2. In the embodiment, security information regarding
the card owner, namely, fingerprint information, is recorded in the
partition 1 and entering and leaving times of the card owner
to/from a specific district are recorded in the partition 2. That
is, in the embodiment, the optical card 5 is used as a personal
identification card to confirm the user as himself by the
fingerprint information. In case of entering or leaving to/from the
special district (for example, in a company, a room where entry is
permitted for only given persons, or the like), the fingerprint
information recorded in the partition 1 and the fingerprint of the
user himself are compared or verified, thereby confirming the user
as himself. By recording entering and leaving times into the
partition 2, the optical card 5 can be also used as a time
card.
A method of recording fingerprint information to the optical card 5
of FIG. 4 will now be described with reference to FIG. 5. In this
embodiment, it is assumed that the fingerprint information is
recorded when the optical card is issued. In FIG. 5, first, the
fingerprint information is read out by a fingerprint scanner (not
shown) and read into the host computer 7. However, in FIG. 5, this
reading step is omitted and it is assumed that the fingerprint
information has already been read into the host computer 7. It is
also assumed that the optical card 5 has already been set in the
drive 6. In a case of recording the fingerprint information, a
recording command is issued from the host computer 7 in FIG. 3 to
the drive 6 and the fingerprint information to be recorded is
transmitted to the drive 6 (S301). When the fingerprint information
is received, the MPU 8 controls each section and allows the
fingerprint information to be recorded into the partition 1 of the
optical card 5 (S302).
As recording regions to record the fingerprint information, five
information tracks are assured in the partition 1 of the optical
card 5 as shown in FIG. 4. Among them, four information tracks are
provided as data regions to record data and one remaining
information track is provided as a directory region to record a
directory. The information track in the directory region is divided
into five sectors. In step S302, the MPU 8 controls each section
and allows the fingerprint information to be recorded to the head
track of the partition 1. The other three tracks remain as
unrecording tracks.
When the fingerprint information is recorded, the host computer 7
executes a verifying process for controlling the drive 6,
reproducing the recorded information, and confirming whether the
fingerprint information can correctly be recorded or not. When the
fingerprint information can be correctly recorded as a result of
the verifying process, the host computer 7 issues a recording
command to the drive 6 and records the directory to manage the
fingerprint information to the optical card 5 (S303). As a result
of the verifying process, if the fingerprint information has not
been correctly recorded, the rerecording operation is sequentially
performed until the same fingerprint information can be correctly
recorded to the next track. Explanation will now be further made on
the assumption that the fingerprint information could be correctly
recorded.
In step S303, the directory to manage the fingerprint information
is recorded in the head sector of the directory region of the
partition 1 as shown in the diagram and the other four sectors
remain as unrecording sectors. After the directory was recorded,
the host computer 7 executes a verifying process for controlling
the drive 6, reproducing the directory, and confirming whether the
directory has been correctly recorded or not. When it is confirmed
that the directory was correctly recorded by the verifying process,
step S304 follows. When the directory has not been correctly
recorded, the rerecording operation is sequentially executed until
the same directory can be correctly recorded in the next sector.
Explanation will be further made on the assumption that the
directory was normally recorded.
When the recording of the directory is finished, the host computer
7 controls the drive 6 and discriminates whether the information
has been recorded in all of the information tracks of the data
region of the partition 1 or not (S304). When the information is
not recorded in all of the information tracks in the partition 1,
dummy data is recorded in the unrecording tracks in the partition 1
(S305). In this case, since three information tracks remain as
unrecording tracks in the data region in the partition 1 as
mentioned above, the host computer 7 issues a recording command to
the drive 6 and allows dummy data to be recorded into the
unrecording tracks. The track shown by a hatched portion in FIG. 4
indicates the track in which the dummy data was recorded.
Any data can be fundamentally used as dummy data so long as it can
be discriminated. It is not always necessary to have a correlation
between the dummy data and predetermined data (security
information) recorded in the partition. For example, in the
embodiment, continuous data of "0" is
recorded in all of the unrecording region in the partition 1.
Continuous data of "1" or continuous data of a specific character
or data may be also recorded. For example, it is also possible to
record a special character train such as "Dummy Data" or the like
or a periodic repetition of special data such as "0101", "1010", or
"1110110". With such a construction, it is possible to easily know
that the data is dummy data. Further, it is also possible to
repetitively record at least a part of the specific data recorded
in the partition like fingerprint information in the embodiment (or
all of the specific data can be also recorded). By using such a
construction, when it becomes impossible to reproduce the specific
data recorded in the partition, the lost data can be reconstructed
by reproducing the dummy data by a special apparatus.
When discriminating in step S304 whether the information has been
recorded in all of the tracks of the partition 1 or not, the MPU 8
controls each section, thereby allowing the light beam for
reproduction to be scanned to all of the information tracks of the
partition 1 from the light beam irradiation optical system 13.
Whether there is an unrecording region where no information is
recorded is discriminated by the MPU 8 on the basis of an output
signal of the photodetector 14.
As mentioned above, when the dummy data is recorded and it is
determined that the dummy data has been recorded in all remaining
tracks of the partition 1 in step S304, the host computer 7
discriminates whether any directory has been recorded in the whole
directory region in the partition 1 (S306). In this case, as
mentioned above, since four sectors remain as unrecording sectors
in the directory region in the partition 1, the host computer 7
similarly controls the drive 6, thereby allowing dummy data to be
recorded into the unrecording sectors (S307). Four sectors shown by
hatched regions in FIG. 4 indicate the sectors where the dummy data
has been recorded. When it is determined by the host computer 7
that the data was recorded in all of the tracks of the directory
region in step S306, the recording process of the fingerprint
information is finished.
In the embodiment, after the fingerprint information was recorded
in the partition of the optical card 5 as described above, the
dummy data is recorded into all of the unrecording regions of the
partition. Therefore, even if data is after-recorded into the
partition, since there is no unoccupied region in the partition, it
can be prevented that the data is after-recorded into the
partition. Thus, even if some person tries to illegally alter the
data by after-recording new data into the partition, since the
after-recording itself of the data cannot be performed, the
alteration of the data can be certainly prevented. The security of
the recorded data of the optical card can be remarkably
improved.
A method of confirming the user as himself by using the optical
card on which the fingerprint information has been recorded as
mentioned above will now be described with reference to a flowchart
of FIG. 6. First, it is assumed that the optical card 5 is used as
a personal identification card to confirm the user as himself and
the drive 6 in FIG. 3 and a fingerprint scanner (not shown) to read
the fingerprint are installed at the entrance/exit of a company. It
is also assumed that the fingerprint of the card owner has already
been read by the fingerprint scanner and read into the host
computer 7 and the optical card 5 has been inserted in the drive 6.
Further, it is assumed that the processes in FIG. 6 are executed by
an entering/leaving managing application on the MPU 8 in FIG.
3.
In FIG. 6, the MPU 8 first inputs the fingerprint information from
the host computer 7 (S401). After that, the MPU 8 controls each
section and reproduces the fingerprint information recorded in the
partition 1 of the optical card 5 (S402). When the fingerprint
information is reproduced, the MPU 8 verifies the fingerprint
information from the host computer 7 with the fingerprint
information reproduced from the optical card 5 (S403). The MPU 8
subsequently discriminates whether the two fingerprints coincide or
not (S404) on the basis of a result of the fingerprint verifying
process in step S403.
When the two fingerprints coincides, a return value to the host
computer 7 is set to "OK" (S405). The return value is notified to
the host computer 7 (S406). When the return value of "OK" is
received, the host computer 7 unlocks a door of an exit/entrance
and permits the entering into the room. When the fingerprint
information coincides, the MPU 8 controls each section and records
the entering time into the partition 2 of the optical card 5. In
this case, the partition 2 of the optical card 5 in FIG. 4
comprises a data region and a directory region in a manner similar
to the partition 1. The entering time is recorded in the data
region. The directory to manage it is recorded in the directory
region. When the recording is finished, the MPU 8 controls the card
feed motor 12, ejects the optical card 5 to the outside of the
apparatus, hands the optical card 5 to the owner, and finishes a
series of processes.
When the fingerprint information does not coincide in step S404,
the MPU 8 sets the return value to "NG" (S407) and notifies the
host computer 7 of the return value (S406). In this case, the host
computer 7 determines that somebody is trying to illegally enter
the room, and inhibits entry to the room by not unlocking the door
of the exit/entrance. The time is not recorded to the optical card
5.
In the above embodiment, the fingerprint information is recorded
only once and the dummy data is recorded into the remaining
regions, thereby eliminating the unrecording region of the
partition. The invention, however, is not limited to such a
construction but the fingerprint information can be also repeatedly
recorded in the partition a plurality of times. In this case, at a
time point when the remaining recording regions of the partition
are smaller than the recording region of the fingerprint
information as much as one fingerprint, the dummy data is recorded
in the remaining recording regions of the partition.
Even by recording as mentioned above, since no unoccupied region is
left in the partition of the optical card, the alteration of data
by the after-recording of data can be similarly prevented. Since
the fingerprint information is recorded a plurality of times, for
example, even in the case where one fingerprint information causes
a recording error due to dust, a scratch, or the like and cannot be
reproduced, the other fingerprint information can be read.
Therefore, safety of the recorded information of the optical card
can be enhanced.
Although the above embodiment has been described with respect to
the method of recording the fingerprint information to the optical
card and managing the entering and leaving, the invention is not
limited to such a method but can be used in various fields. For
example, it is also possible to use the invention in a prepaid card
system. In this regard an initial money amount could be recorded
into a predetermined partition of the card at the time of the card
issuing, with dummy data being recorded to the remaining regions of
the partition. With this method, illegal alteration of money amount
information can be prevented and the money amount information
recorded in the prepaid card can be protected.
Further, according to the above embodiment, although the example in
which the fingerprint information is recorded as information to
confirm the card user as himself has been shown, the information to
confirm the user as himself is not limited to the fingerprint
information. For example, peculiar information such as a number or
the like to identify or authorize the user of the card or the
issuer of the card can be recorded or information to authorize the
card or system can be also used. Although the embodiment has been
described on the assumption that the fingerprint information and
the dummy data are recorded when the optical card is issued, as
another method, for instance, predetermined information (security
information) and the dummy data can be also recorded when the card
is manufactured or when the card is personalized.
According to the invention as described above, the predetermined
information is recorded into the partition of the information
recording medium and dummy data is recorded into all of the
remaining regions of the partition, so that it is possible to
prevent after-recording to the partition. Therefore, even if
somebody tries to after-record new information to the partition and
to illegally alter the recorded information, since there is no
unoccupied region in the partition, the alteration of the recorded
information in the partition can be prevented. The security of the
recorded information of the recording medium can be remarkably
raised.
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